Bad Kid
by Misty Reeyus
Summary: When it comes down to it, Masumi lives up to the nickname perfectly. One-shot.


**Bad Kid**

_**Warnings: **__Spoilers until File 824. And personal headcanons and theories that may or may not turn out to be true._

_**Notes: **Canon's probably gonna blast this apart in the future. But I'm writing it anyway._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan.**_

* * *

"Shuu-nii!" four-year-old Masumi cried gleefully, waving down at her brother from the branch she was perched on. "Look at me!"

Fourteen-year-old Shuichi stared up at her in surprise. "Masumi, how did you get all the way up there?" Geez, hardly ten minutes since they'd arrived at the park, and his little sister had already escaped his sight and made it five meters up a tree.

"I climbed, duh." Masumi grinned proudly. "Aren't I high?"

Shuichi sighed. "Yes, yes, you're very high. Now come back down."

"No, I like it up here." She started to swing her legs.

"Masumi, that's dangerous," Shuichi stated firmly. "Get down _now_."

The girl gave a little huff, but muttered a reluctant "Fine, I'm coming" and started to make her way back down.

She was still three meters high when her foot slipped.

Fortunately, she only slid down the truck for a moment before her hand latched onto another branch and she regained her footing. It was just a slight stumble, but it was enough to suddenly spark Shuichi's concern. He positioned himself under Masumi so that he could catch her in case she took another, more dangerous fall, but she climbed the rest of the way down without incident.

"Are you okay?" Shuichi asked worriedly the moment she set foot on the ground. He knelt down to her height, and while giving her a quick look-over, he noticed a smear of red on her leg, where the bark had skinned her knee when she'd slipped. "Masumi, you got hurt! Do you feel alright? Hang on, we'll go home and get it treated."

Getting so frantic over such a minor thing was uncharacteristic of her brother, and also rather silly, so Masumi just couldn't help making fun of him a bit. She let out a series of melodramatic gasps and groans, pretending to spasm and shake while shouting, "Oh no, a knee scrape! It hurts so much I could just die! Ack, oh, it's killing me! I'm dying! I'm dyingggg!" She gave one last exaggerated moan, then finally dropped the act and burst into giggles.

Shuichi gave her a stern and very unamused glare. "Masumi, don't joke. You scared me up there. If you had fallen to the ground then, you could have been seriously hurt."

Hold it, she'd really scared him that much? "S-sorry," she said, suddenly feeling guilty.

It took only seconds of looking at the apologetic expression on her cherubic face for Shuichi to give in. "Well, that's in the past now," he conceded, "so I guess I can let it slide just this once. But don't climb so high ever again, understand?"

Masumi instantly brightened up and grinned. "Okay!"

Shuichi blinked at the sudden change in mood, then sighed. "You're a real bad kid, you know that?" It was a casual comment, that expressed his slight annoyance with her, but wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

Masumi was offended. "Hey, I'm not bad!"

Apparently, she'd taken it seriously. And Shuichi saw the opportunity for a little payback. "Oh, I think you are," he said, then stood up and began to walk away.

"No I'm not!" Masumi cried, catching up to him. Her scraped knee wasn't really bothering her, only creating a slight stinging sensation, so she had no trouble walking by herself and keeping up with her brother.

Shuichi took her hand in his as they left the park and headed for home. "Bad kid," he said again, just to tease her.

Masumi pouted. "Stop it."

"Bad kid."

"Cut it out!"

"Masumi's a bad kid."

"SHUU-NII!"

* * *

"Sorry, but if I could have you guys undergo the police questioning in my place," seventeen-year-old Masumi said, beginning to walk away, "I have some matters I must attend to."

She heard Ran say okay, and taking that as her permission to leave, Masumi started down the street. But seconds later, a cry from behind her caused Masumi to look back over her shoulder, to see Ran crouched down and gripping Conan's arm.

"Hold it! The area around your elbow is all scraped up!" Ran exclaimed.

"I took a tumble earlier," Conan said.

Ran pulled out a bandage and started to put it on his arm, gently chastising him all the while, and Conan just let her do so while smiling in slight embarrassment. In another person's eyes, it might have seemed like nothing more than just a cute image of an young lady doting upon a younger little boy. But to Masumi, the scene was far too heartbreaking.

This interaction between Ran and Conan was so similar to that of siblings, so reminiscent of how her own older brother had fussed over her when she was a child. Though she was now far too old to be treated that way anymore, she really missed those days, when Shuu-nii was still there, still with her.

Still alive.

And that was the part that really hurt—being reminded of the fact that her brother was gone forever. She wouldn't get anymore calls or messages from him. He wasn't going to come back home for another visit. Never again would she talk with him about his FBI job, or show him her newest JKD moves, or play mystery games with him, or even simply enjoy his presence in her life. The sudden loss even made Masumi miss the things she'd never thought she would—his sharp scolding, his relentless teasing, his inability to smile properly, his stupid little nickname for her...

Oh, that nickname, that silly old title that Shuu-nii had first given her in a tree-climbing incident when she was four. From that point on, her brother would call her by it when she got in trouble, and over time he even started to occasionally use it in place of her name. She had never much liked it, found it annoying in fact, but he had only ever used it jokingly and without really meaning it, so she would usually just roll her eyes and let it go.

Though, maybe it was a more fitting name than she or her brother had ever really believed. Thinking about it now, her very adventurous and disobedient nature had often gotten her into binds as a child, and Shuu-nii had usually gone to quite a bit of trouble to bail her out. And even now, after he was gone, what was she doing? Trying to get involved in his business, searching for answers to his secretive death, sticking her nose in possibly dangerous places that her brother would never have let her enter if he could do anything about it. Perhaps she was more of a burden to Shuu-nii than she'd realized. And now it was too late to make it up to him.

Grief was overcoming her now. All these thoughts, these memories, these emotions—it was just too much. Masumi had done a good deal of mourning already, but the impact of her brother's death was still hitting her pretty hard. She felt tears suddenly spring to her eyes, and as she continued to gaze at the now blurred image of Ran and Conan, she realized that Shuu-nii had been right.

_"I guess I'm a bad kid after all."_

* * *

"SHUU-NII!"

The furious yell was accompanied by a vicious, lightning-fast high kick aimed for the head. Even though this response had been expected, Shuichi was only barely able to dodge the attack unharmed.

"Masumi, please calm down—"

"I will not calm down, you bastard!" Masumi screamed. This time she sent him a low, sweeping kick in an attempt to knock his feet out from under him. Again, Shuichi anticipated this, and he managed to evade it with a high jump.

However, this put him in a bad position for the next attack—a punch thrown straight at his gut. But while he knew that it would be impossible for him to completely avoid this one, it was obvious that he could lessen the damage significantly if he would simply turn his body.

Only, he didn't.

Shuichi didn't even try to turn or move or anything, but just let the attack hit him straight on. Upon impact, he doubled over instantly, clutching at his stomach and groaning slightly. Damn, this hurt like _hell_—Masumi had gotten a lot stronger than he remembered—but he had to endure the pain and any other strikes she would land upon his body. He knew that he deserved it.

Fortunately for Shuichi, successfully delivering that one hit had tamed most of Masumi's anger, so she didn't feel the need to attack him again. At least, not physically. She still had quite a bit of steam that she needed to let off, though.

"You're alive," Masumi managed to gasp out, but even as she said it, she still had trouble believing it. Dammit, she'd already gone through this when Shuu-nii had appeared before her on the train. Even though she'd thought he was dead for so long, she had foolishly believed for a moment that it was really him, that it was some sort of miracle. That joy had been stolen from her just as quickly as it had come when he'd turned out to be just an imposter. So she'd resolved herself never to fall for such tricks, to get her hopes up, ever again. But just when she had finally gotten over that incident, the real Shuu-nii decided to reveal himself and mess her up all over again.

"This whole time," Masumi emphasized. "This _whole time_, you were alive." She had grieved and regretted and shed tears over him like an idiot, and all along he'd been perfectly fine, living calmly here in Tokyo, not ever once trying to contact her to let her know the truth.

"What, did you think it wasn't important enough to tell me?" She finally yelled at him, her anger taking over again. "Was it too much work to let your own _family_ know you weren't actually _dead_?!"

The slightly vindictive part of Masumi wanted to hurt him with her words, to pay him back at least some of the pain she was feeling right now, but Shuu-nii, ever the stoic bastard, showed no visible reaction. So she continued.

"Or was it just a joke to you? Were you just laughing at me while I tried to figure out what happened to you and you were right under my nose?" Because that's what it felt like—like she'd been played for a fool—because for crying out loud, just _how_ had she looked straight at that Subaru guy and not realized he was really her brother in disguise? And furthermore, how could Shuu-nii just stand right in front of her and not say anything to let her know it was him?

"Do you even know what I went through?" By this point she was practically ranting, the words pouring out of her mouth faster than she could organize her thoughts. "They just told me you were dead, and I kept asking them what happened but they refused to tell me anything so I had to come all the way here to try and learn something, and then I saw you and I thought I was going crazy and then I saw you again but it was an imposter and you were right there just watching all of it _this whole time_—!"

Masumi stopped short as she abruptly gave an uncontrollable, breathy gasp, her next words instantly swallowed by the sob rising up from her throat. She suddenly realized that tears were running down her cheeks, and she desperately tried to stop them, to no avail. As much as she would have liked to keep yelling, she just didn't have it in her anymore. Her anger had given way to hurt, and all she could do was look down at the floor and cry.

"Masumi," Shuu-nii's voice reached her ears. Oh sure, _now_ he decided to speak. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me from what?" Masumi murmured, her tears still flowing, her voice soft yet slightly bitter. "The truth? The very thing I was searching for?"

"From dangerous people," Shuu-nii said. "If I told anyone the truth, it could fall into the wrong hands."

"So you couldn't trust me? You thought I couldn't keep a secret?" It wasn't an angry statement, more despondent than anything. Did her brother really have so little faith in her?

"They knew your relation to me and were watching you." Well yeah, she had figured out that much after the train incident. "If you gave them any reason to suspect I was alive, they wouldn't hesitate to eliminate both of us. One can only fake ignorance for so long. Yours had to be real."

And to tell the truth, Masumi already knew that. She understood exactly why Shuu-nii had done what he had, and logically, his reasons made perfect sense. But she couldn't care about logic here, because it didn't change the fact that she had grieved, that she had been manipulated, that she had _suffered_...

Dammit, why couldn't she stop crying?

"I never meant to hurt you," he said, and maybe she imagined it, but she could have sworn that whatever edge he'd had in his voice suddenly softened. "However, that doesn't excuse the fact that I did."

Wait, what? Mildly surprised, Masumi turned her head up, trying to get a good look at her brother. Shuu-nii took a step closer to her, and as she looked straight into his face, he spoke.

"Masumi, I'm sorry."

And he was apologizing so sincerely, his eyes so earnest, his expression truly regretful, and she could practically hear the warmth in his voice and feel him radiating with that familiar comforting aura, and she realized again, this time with greater clarity, that he was _alive_, standing and breathing, so close, right there, with her...

Before she could even think, Masumi was launching herself forward, wrapping her arms around Shuu-nii and hugging him with all her might. He instantly tensed against her body—she must have surprised him—but he soon relaxed and returned the gesture, his arms encircling her shoulders and pulling her into a tight embrace.

Masumi buried her face in his chest, taking in his close contact and his body heat, relishing the feel of his hands on her back and the sound of his beating heart, and feeling for the first time in a long time that everything was how it should be. She was practically soaring, so relieved and thrilled and unimaginably happy, and this moment was so perfect that she was almost scared to let it go.

They stayed like that for a long time before Masumi finally felt comfortable enough to loosen her hold and back off. "You okay now?" Shuu-nii said.

She must have stopped crying at some point, for her eyes were free of tears and her cheeks were dry, and this time she met his gaze with more confidence. A smile spread across her face as Masumi replied, "Yeah." She was drained from everything that had happened, and she still couldn't forgive Shuu-nii completely, and she was most definitely gonna get him back for all this someday, but she was okay, and he was okay, and that was all that really mattered right now.

The corners of Shuu-nii's lips quirked up just slightly, and he gave her his own smile in reply. "Good." He put his hands in his pockets and leaned back, and pleasant silence reigned between them for some time.

"But you know, you really surprised me, coming to Japan to investigate all by yourself," Shuu-nii spoke again, looking amused. "Just doing whatever you want, regardless of my hopes. Such a troublemaker."

He was just joking with her, she realized, and she had missed this so much that she couldn't help but play along. Masumi grinned even wider and playfully wagged her finger at him. "You should know this by now, Shuu-nii," she mock chastised. "I've always been a bad kid."

Shuu-nii took a moment to understand, but once he recognized the old nickname he let out a soft chuckle and agreed. "That's true."

And neither of them would have wanted it any other way.

* * *

_**More Notes:**_

-_Okay, I admit it, I just really, __really__ wanted to write a Sera-Shuichi sibling fic. Because as far as I can tell, there aren't any such stories to be found anywhere. (Though, I could be wrong and there are some that I just haven't been able to find. If that's so, would anybody please be so kind as to direct me to them?)_

_-Middle section of the story is taken from chapter 814. Last section would take place sometime a little before the final Black Organization confrontation or something. Yeah, I know Shuichi's reveal is probably not actually going to turn out anything like that when it finally does come, but screw it, I like it this way. _

_-Please forgive any details that canon has contradicted or will contradict in the future. And any OOCness too, because I think their characterizations might have gotten away from me a bit. _


End file.
